6. Nemeth
7. Eakin - I probably should have him ranked a little bit higher but I haven't seen enough of him for me to put him over guys like Nemeth and Dillon. Seems like the worst case scenario for Eakin is that he ends up as a solid third line player. I'm excited to see what he does this season.

While I agree he's a virtual lock for the NHL roster, I understand why piqued didn't consider him "graduated" like Vincour and Larsen.

Larsen and Vincour have played twice as many NHL games as Eakin. In addition, Larsen had worked his way into Top 4 minutes by the end of the year, and Vincour was playing mostly 3rd line minutes the last month of the season. Eakin was still essentially a 4th liner in Washington, a role I highly doubt he would have played in Dallas (they would have opted for AHL time IMO). Those two are better established NHLers at this point.

At least IMO, Eakin is as unproven at the NHL level as Chiasson, Reilly Smith, and Scott Glennie. That's not a negative though.

I went with Nemeth because I feel he's going to be a consistent Top 4 physical presence. At this point, I think Eakin and Glennie are still 2nd/3rd line tweeners. It's essentially a coin flip for me on the next pick between Glennie and Eakin.

Can the five people that picked Glennie give some insight why? How can you pick Glennie over Eakin or Nemeth?

I can't speak for others, I believe BigG said something similar in the last 1-2 threads, but I consider Glennie, Dillon, Eakin, and Nemeth so close that it's really more of a coin flip.

The first three have all had a year in the AHL so they are a bit closer, but word is Nemeth may not need a full season in the AHL. Dillon and Eakin look like they've got NHL spots locked up. Then I also rank Nemeth and Glennie's potential as better than Eakin and Dillon's.

I think I'm going to have to go with piqued's directive that only Stars fans can vote to finish this one up tomorrow since it's so close. I didn't recognize all the names on the Eakin and Nemeth votes, but I'll actually check out their post history tomorrow and make sure they are Dallas fans or not. Since it's so close, and I don't want to get it wrong, I'll let you know if I think someone's vote shouldn't count (based on piqued's rules) so someone can call me on it if I got it wrong.

I can't believe we're at 42 votes already and it's still this close. I get the feeling we'll have this settled by tomorrow afternoon or evening.

I confirmed all 16 votes for Eakin, and all 18 votes for Nemeth were made by Stars fans.

With 48 votes cast, I'm close to moving on. The most votes cast so far was for the 2nd vote at 52. If no more votes come between now and me leaving work around 4 PM, I'll set up the new poll just before I leave work.